Projects from our Adult 3D printing class

A quick overview on some of the things we did for our 3D printing class at San Jose Learning Center this past month (August). This was a 5 weekend (Sat only) 2 hour/week class for teens and adults - an introductory course to 3D printing. Here are some of the things that the students printed for the class.

First, we downloaded a 3D model of a bunny in a cage from Thingiverse. This was the chosen test model.

The model was first printed in ABS material then what one of our students did was to re-cast the model into silver. He managed to even get the bunny out of the cage first before re-casting it in silver. Look at the amazing final product.

3D model from Thingiverse

Bunny and cage in Silver

Here is a human figure model created using SketchUp. We printed this model in ABS on the Afinia UP printer with no support needed. Pretty nifty little model and easy to create on SketchUP.

Finally, I showed the students how you can use 123D Catch to create any real-life objects into a 3D model. Here is an example of a self-portrait captured on 123D Catch. The software isn't great at capturing hair features so this 3D model looks like it had no hair - which is the case indeed. But it is still a pretty decent model and the software is free. To refine the model and give it a polished finish, I showed them how you can use an acetone bath to "bathe" the models and here is what you can get.

3D printed Self-Portrait model in ABS

3D printed Self-Portrait post-processed in acetone bath

Finally here is the Bat-car ring the group did on the last day. The Bat-car itself was sourced from Google Warehouse and the rest was created using SketchUp, TinkerCAD and Netfabb software. Nice going class!

Bat-car ring model "Killer"

Ring on finger

Those are some of the tricks and things we did for this class. Apart from all the things they have learned, I think it was also a really fun class for all of us.

Thank you all folks!